What a FUN debut. I absolutely loved this book. It’s exciting, guardians of the galaxy vibes, what starbringer could have been if it had a better editor and writing. The characters are complex and funny (especially Temper like I loved her). The romance was fun and hot (although I wish it spread over multiple books! And was more of a slow burn). It deff gives Ilona Andrews vibes.

I’m excited to see where this series goes especially since the ending by wrapped up things a little too well. Overall this is a fun quick read for anyone who likes sci-fi.

I do have two big questions I need to go back and try to figure out: 1) how old are they? Sometimes they read as in their early 30s by context but most of the language and messing around feels more juvenile - like early 20s. But the early 20s doesn’t make sense with the timeline Fey set out. So the incongruousness of the way the characters spoke with their assumed age kept throwing me off.
2) is Micah Black? Cuz if so she should never have put him in a slave collar. But idk if it’s ever explicitly stated or if I just assumed because of his name.

I love a good sci fi and romance is the cherry on top - this one was easy reading and fun without a lot of depth. It had all the makings for a great story: a rag-tag crew with a down-on-their-luck leader, an enemies-to-lovers romance plot, a rich elite bodyguard type forced to go on a mission with the crew, a planet with weird cult-like activities and adventure, you name it. There were a lot of fun sci elements and banter amongst the crew, however, the romance was. a bit of a hard sell for me and some of the dialogue made me cringe. I liked it, didn't love it, but for someone looking to get into sci fi this would be a good starter novel! 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bramble for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

3.5 stars --
a classic & relatively straightforward space opera, but with the added romance storyline. this is an enemies-to-lovers scifi novel about temper (a girl drowning in debt & trying to keep her ship's tech from becoming obsolete) & arcadio, child of the family funding temper's scouting mission. this book was an adventure with a spicy element added, and i had a great time. lots of fun! not too deep!

I wasn't a fan of the heroine, and I wasn't interested in the romance. I would like the sci-fi elements on their own.

Constance Fay has a fun romance in a future where Human space is dominated by major families. Temperance Reed, who had been banished from a top ten family when her brother took control, is the captain of a small survey ship that is renamed Calamity (paper from Bramble) by the end of the tale. She is hired by one of the top five families to survey Herschel 2, a planet with a cult settlement, and a huge volcano. The volcano may be blocking scans that may reveal a mineral that promises a revolution in energy, and that everyone is looking for. She has to take on board Arcadio Escajeda, a security specialist and member of the aforementioned family that hired her. There’s enough difficulty in the survey because of volcanic tubes, a high water level just below the surface and the cult. But, as you might have guessed, there’s a James Bond type villain with a hidden lair under the volcano. With high danger, of course romance blossoms, but the excitement of fighting the villain is also fun. Sequels are planned.

Calamity was a fun and fast paced sci-fi romance. Following our main character Temper as she is trying to keep her crew and ship together. While I enjoyed following these characters, I had a hard time getting invested in the plot and romance. This felt a little dull at times and I wished for something more in regards to the romance. It was very flat.

There were some fun and quirky parts but a lot of the dialogue felt cringe and pulled me out of the story.

Overall, this was fun but left a lot to be desired.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Calamity by Constance Fay was such an adventure packed and entertaining read. I cannot believe that this is her debut novel and I cannot wait to read more from Constance Fay. This book felt very unique and different from everything I’ve read lately. I cannot wait to recommend this book to sci-if fans who are looking for something a little different.

I'm not normally one to pick up science fiction but I heard the promise of romance and decided to give it a try. Space sex and intergalactic shenanigans, Calamity delivered. From the beginning I found myself drawn to and identifying with Temperance aka Temper Reed. She is funny, sarcastic, and witty even in the most stressful, inappropriate situations--she has no filter. Upon meeting our MMC in the book, Arcadio Escajeda, to whom she feels an immediate attraction, her instinct is to irritate him. Can relate.

The feeling is mutual though we do not know what Arcadio is thinking; we just get descriptions of glances, a look in his eyes that quickly disappears. He's equal parts helpful and caring with overbearing and bossy. He challenges Temper in the best way. He quickly becomes a part of the crew even if Temper is still cautious of him.

However, before long, Fay is giving us that emotional yearning and sexual tension readers want. And eventually the slow space dance of seduction begins. And since Temper feels that Arcadio is light years out of her reach, she has no issue being her true riotous self. Which really just seems to arouse Arcadio even more. [Minor spoiler, the name of the book comes from the nickname Arcadio gives Temper. He calls her a "calamity" but when he explains why, my heart soared into a galaxy far, far away. I am trash for a hero giving his love interest a typically terrible nickname only to find out he's twisted it into the most romantic and insightful reason.] In return, she begins to realize that Arcadio is not who she thought he would be, a stuck-up, know-it-all rich guy from a top Family, second in line to take over. He's also wickedly funny and rational, something Temper needs at times.

As for the plot, there are families and then there are Families. A lot of the world building happens throughout the book and there's quite a bit of space Family politicking. It does make sense (mostly--but this could be a "me" thing who can sometimes gloss over the worldbuilding...) by the end of the book. Arcadio is from one of the top five Families and Temper was once part of one of the top ten Families (if I'm mathing correclty). But her brother is an absolute sociopath of a tyrant who had her banished when she tried to go behind his back to stop one of his diabolical plans--ok, so that *does* sound a bit treasonous but she had good intentions and was trying to show him there is a way to accomplish things without being shady. And what starts out as a space mission to find some magical element that could save space turns into so (!) much (!) more(!). The plot has many layers which even this reader could keep up with. And while the book ends with an HEA, Fay has done the work to set up what is going to be an amazing series--something that can be hard to accomplish in the first book in a series, let alone a DEBUT novel.

Her crew is out of this world. They are very diverse and have their own personalities that captured my heart. I want to see them find their HEAs because each has been banished from their home planet and has a story. I'm super interested in Micah the stoic, monosyllabic medic and another character we meet halfway through the book. I might be wishing on a star but I swear I felt something between the two of them....

There may be a lot happening in this book but it's just a great ride. One could make a comparison to the classic, yet short lived, space dramedy Firefly, and Calamity does give off that vibe but is funnier and sexier. Cleverly written, action packed, and an HEA? What more could a reader want?

Thank you Tor Publishing for taking a chance on me taking a chance on this book and Ms. Fay.

Great set up. one is a Calamity but in the best way. The crew are paid for one task but do not know about the main mission. Loved the characters. The ploy had enough twists to keep me reading. First in a series. Will be on the lookout for book two.

The nitty-gritty: Romance, humor and thrilling action combine in this fun sci-fi series opener.

Calamity is the first book published by Tor’s new Bramble imprint, which focuses on SFF romance, and judging by how much fun I had, I see a bright future for Bramble! Yes, romance is definitely a front-and-center element, but the plot and characters are just as strong. I got lots of Firefly vibes, and in fact the main character’s ship the Quest reminded me a lot of Serenity, so fans of the show—or anyone who loves the “misfit crew in space” set-up—will have a blast.

The story centers around Temperance “Temper” Reed and her survey ship the Quest and its crew. Temper is in dire need of a good paying job when she’s offered one by the powerful Escajeda Family. Their task is to survey the planet Herschel Two and scout for any signs of a valuable mineral called phydium, which is crucial for space travel. Because the Escajedas are a mining Family, the discovery of phydium would increase their power among the other Families. Temper agrees to the job, especially since the pay is double what she would normally make. But there’s a catch: the Escajeda scion insists that his son Arcadio go along with them as security. Temper isn’t stupid, and she knows there’s an ulterior motive behind Arcadio joining the crew, but she grudgingly agrees. Arcadio might be a distraction, though. He’s a muscled piece of eye candy, and Temper can’t ignore the sparks that fly when they meet. But a job is a job, and Temper needs the money.

Once they reach Herschel Two, the crew begins their search for the elusive phydium, but there are unexpected dangers on the planet. First, they run into a religious cult called the Children, who are not happy to see them. Later, they discover another group—members from a notoriously violent Family—and suddenly it seems very crowded. For an “officially” unoccupied planet, there are a lot of people on Herschel Two, probably all up to no good. Temper, Arcadio and their crew must avoid being captured and locate the phydium before someone gets hurt.

Constance Fay’s snappy writing style is perfect for the story, which is told from Temper’s first person perspective. I absolutely loved her character, a snarky, funny woman who is loyal to her friends and will dive head first into danger to protect those she loves. Temper has been banished from her family for betraying them, but trust me, she had some very good reasons for what she did. Now she wears a tear-shaped, glowing tattoo on her face that marks her as such, but she doesn’t regret anything she did, only that her slimy brother Frederick killed someone dear to her as retaliation. I enjoyed the other members of her crew—Itzel, Micah and Caro—although the author doesn’t delve too deep into their personalities, unfortunately (although there’s always the sequel for more character development).

Arcadio is your textbook romantic interest in some ways—extremely good looking, chiseled chin, dark penetrating eyes, bulging muscles—and romance fans won’t be disappointed by his chemistry with Temper, which the author wastes no time in getting to. Despite her status as ship’s captain, Temper doesn’t hide her attraction to Arcadio, and everyone on the ship knows the moment they hook up. What I loved about their growing relationship was that they didn’t play games with each other. Fay avoids some of the traps and tropes of the romance genre by leaving out problematic things like miscommunication, and it was refreshing to be around a couple who have the hots for each other and aren’t afraid to talk about it. In such a short book, you can only expect a couple of sex scenes, and I thought they were pretty mild compared to other spicy books (the sex is nowhere near the spice level of Fourth Wing, for example). Even when Temper discovers what Arcadio is up to, the drama between the two is pretty minimal, I’m happy to report.

And if you’re into action, there’s no shortage of it here! The plot is fast-paced and thrilling, the characters are in constant danger, and the author has lots of surprises in store for the reader. I loved the way she maneuvers the various factions on the planet around each other, which made for some interesting scenes. The planet itself has a big surprise, which I won’t spoil here, and Fay uses it to her advantage to create lots of tension and drama. One of my favorite scenes, which has a wonderful combination of humor and bloody action, takes place when Temper finds a borer (a machine used in mining) to get out of a sticky situation. I also enjoyed the tech used in the story. Most people from the higher echelon Families have “mods,” or modifications to their vision, appendages or even the way they process oxygen, but only the wealthy can afford them.

I was a little unclear on how the Families worked, though, and I suspect it’s because there just wasn’t time to explain everything. If you’re in one of the top Five Families, you have it made, but the author also mentions “top Ten” and “top Fifty” so it was a little confusing. I also wanted to get to know the side characters more. The little we learn about Itzel was fascinating, and I think she could be a fantastic character with a little more page time.

Fay cleverly ties up all her loose ends, including a running joke about how lame the crew thinks the name “Quest” is for a ship. We also meet a mysterious character who will end up being one half of the romantic paring in the sequel (yes, I’ve already read the synopsis for the second book, Fiasco!) The story has a typical “happily ever after” ending, but that’s what you expect when you read romance, right? Overall, this was such a great series opener, and I can’t wait to read the next book.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Book Summary:

Temperance Reed, aka Temper, is one of the infamous Fifteen Families. Or rather, she was. She was banished and branded and now lives on the outer rims. She and her new crew do okay as they explore and report on new planets for the families.

But Temper needs a big cash win to keep her ship going, which means accepting a job with the Escajeda Family...and taking one of their sons along for the job. She knows the family will do everything in their power to pull one over on her crew, but she doesn't have much choice. Even knowing that she is not prepared for everything that will come.

My Review:

Let's be real; I was already excited about Calamity before it was described as a cross between Firefly and Ilona Andrews. After reading that, I knew I had to check out this book (series). Boy, was I not disappointed!

The science fiction/space elements were so much fun. Here, we have a competent team (whom I desperately want to learn more about) working in harsh conditions. It was fun to read about, even without the whole family/romantic subplots.

The politics of the families was also pretty interesting. It added more threat and danger to a story that could easily have gotten away with focusing purely on physical threats. It was a solid addition and will help the series last in the long run.

Finally, there's the romance. I don't want to spoil this part for you, so I'll try to be vague. Temper's life is complicated, and she has a lot of trust issues. That gets bundled into the romantic plot, making it an emotionally tense yet compelling read.

Long story short, Calamity was fantastic! It's worth the read, and I'll be looking out for the rest of this series (Uncharted Hearts) to drop.

Highlights:
Science Fiction
Romance
Misfit Crew/Found Family

Thank you to NetGalley and Bramble/Tor Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Pub Date: November 14, 2023

4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this Sci-Fi Romance....Sci-ance....Roman-Fi? Anway....banter, light sci-fi/space setting, found family, enemies to lovers...a lot of my favorite stuff! I am so excited that this is the first in the series (though totally stands on it's own, so I'm wondering who is next) and I get more of these characters! This kept me really engaged the whole time and there was a bunch of action too.

They had me at Firefly. Seriously. I’m still a sucker for another trip on anything like the Serenity, and Calamity, both the ship and the person she’s named for, certainly flies a very similar trajectory out in the black.

But Temperance Reed, infamous as just ‘Temper’ for damn good reasons, isn’t really all that much like Mal Reynolds. Mal seems to have started life close to the bottom in his ‘verse, while Temperance Reed, once upon a time, was at the top of hers.

However, being a soldier imploded his life, being the younger sister of an entitled asshole blew up hers, and they both end up in the same place, as captains of scrappy, ramshackle ships they can barely manage to keep flying, with misfit crews, taking jobs they know they shouldn’t take but can’t afford to turn down, making the best of the bad hand that life has dealt them.

Once upon a time, Temper Reed was the child of one of the ‘Ten’, one of the mega-rich, mega-corp, mercantile families that control their galaxy. But the problem with Temper wasn’t so much her temper as it was her older brother’s. He was the heir, she was the spare, but she was their parents’ favorite.

So once they were gone, his insecurities and megalomania combined to take her family’s development in a direction she knew her parents would never have condoned. Instead of continuing to create cutting-edge tech utilizing AI and language processing, her brother Frederick turned them into a ruthless slice and dice operation that just killed off competition – literally – and then swooped in to buy out the remainders.

They stopped creating. And Temper stopped believing, to the point where she rebelled and he officially disowned and banished her to the unregulated black. There’s more to that story, and it’s all awful. Awfully well told and revealed, but still awful.

Temper and her crew are on borrowed time, and the ship is in hock up to Temper’s eyebrows. So when one of the really big conglomerate families offers them a job with premium pay, Temper knows she has to take it, even though she also knows that they’re concealing a whole lot of the details about what’s really going on, AND that she and her crew are expendable in the first place and they don’t plan to pay them even if they survive.

What she doesn’t expect is a corporate minder in the much too handsome and appealing person of one of the family’s younger sons, Arcadio Escajeda. She’s sure she can ignore her hormones in favor of the common sense that’s telling her that family scions in good standing absolutely do not take up with banished and reviled traitors to their own families.

While Temper may be swimming up the River DeNial, wherever that might be located in her ‘verse, it’s not Arcadio’s perfectly sculpted hotness that throws her good sense over its shoulder and takes it along for the ride – it’s his willingness to truly BE a part of her crew no matter how boring or dangerous the duty might be. Along with just how damn good he is at helping her save them all.

Temper, apparently, is a sucker for competence. While Arcadio turns out to be a sucker for Calamity.

Escape Rating A+: Damn this is fun. Or should I say shiny. Fun, absolutely, utterly fun. I had a terrific time reading this. It’s a wild thrill ride of a science fiction adventure with a (dare I say it?) core of molten lava in multiple senses of all those words.

But a big chunk of the reason I loved it was because of just how well it fits into the science fiction romance tradition – which has never gotten near as much love as it deserves. So I have hopes that Tor Books’ creation of the Bramble imprint, specifically for the purpose of publishing science fiction romance, will do a lot to turn that tide.

The thing about SFR as a genre is that it has to sit on the fence between SF and romance and not get too many splinters up its ass from either side – unless it turns out that the romantic partners are into that sort of thing. Which means that the worldbuilding and plotting has to tell a credible SF story while putting a romance with at least a HFN (that’s Happy For Now), at its heart.

It’s not that it hasn’t been done, because it most definitely has. While Firefly hinted at it – frequently and often – that wasn’t the heart of that story. And the blurb’s mention of Ilona Andrews isn’t quite right as most of her work has been urban fantasy. Compelling with wonderful storytelling and world creation, but not SFR except for her short but marvelous Kinsmen series.

Instead, the comparisons are to Rachel Bach’s Paradox series, Valerie Valdes’ more recent Chilling Effect series, K.B. Wagers’ Indranan War, and even going back to Nina Croft’s Dark Desires series and further back to Lois McMaster Bujold’s long-running Vorkosigan Saga.

I can’t leave that list without mentioning the marvelous – and marvelously prolific – Anna Hackett, who has created some truly terrific universes, terribly rapacious villains, and steam-up-the spaceship windows SFR series for anyone who loves a rollicking good SF adventure with a steamy heart. (If you like the sound of Calamity, or if you loved any of the above mentioned, check out Hackett’s Eon Warriors series and its sequels for some excellent SFR!)

Between its background of mercantile, family-run empires, unhinged heirs and abusive siblings, battered smugglers and their ships along with its story of a star-crossed romance with a change, Calamity is a worthwhile successor to any and all of the above. And if Tor Books’ creation of Bramble makes readers re-evaluate just how great a taste it can be to add a bit of romance to their SF, that’s all to the good.

Because Calamity manages to straddle that fence very, very well. The world is solidly built, the heroes are just the right level of ragtag, Temper is most definitely interestingly flawed but still striving, and the mission is exciting and FUBAR’d at the same time – just as it should be.

The romance between Temper and Arcadio has the deliciousness of being oh-so-right, oh-so-wrong and oh-so-big-a-mistake wrapped up in a dangerous package that hits all the right places, with all the intrusive wink-wink, nod-nod poking from the crew needed to make it both sweet and spectacle at the same time. While the save-the-mission-and-maybe-die-trying ending was just the kind of wild ride that SF readers love.

Which I most certainly did.

Calamity is both the author’s debut novel AND the book that marks the kickoff for Bramble, and it’s a grand book to carry both of those banners. I can’t wait to see what else they have in store for SFR lovers in the months to come. And Temper will be back next June in Fiasco, which, if Calamity is anything to go by, will probably be filled with oodles of fiascos for Temper and her crew while delivering another kickass science fiction adventure wrapped around a fantastic romance!

I feel like I was conned by a gorgeous book cover and a really well-written blurb. It’s not the first time, but I’m really bummed about it in this case, because I was really looking forward to this book and then it took a lot for me to finish it.

Calling this book enemies-to-lovers is generous. It’s more of a socioeconomic difference mixed with distrust for a governing system and then paired with a tenuous employer/employee relationship. They’re not enemies, per se. They just have a lot of trust issues and don’t know anything about one another personally; only rumors.

I just wanted so much more from this book, but pacing issues took up a lot of space and time in this book, which made it longer than it needed to be and really ruined some of the more dramatic, fantastic, and exciting portions of the book. Our FMC, Temperance, needed her hide saved far too much for me to appreciate, and it was usually Arcadio (our MMC) that did the saving. That never sits well with me in romance.

While two out of the other three members of the ship Temperance commands are female (when you exclude Arcadio), this book barely even passes the Bechdel Test because all the other female crew members want to talk to Temperance about 99% of the time is Arcadio (and/or Temperance having intercourse with him). Thanks but no thanks. I’d rather hear about their work aboard the ship, their lives, or anything else.

I just can’t in good conscience say this book truly connected for me. It was an okay read, but not a good one for me.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was offered or accepted for this review. Due to the three star or lower rating, this review will not appear anywhere on social media, as personal policy dictates.

Enemies to lovers sci-fi? I was immediately intrigued. I have very rarely read in the sci-fi romance genre but I looove sci-fi shows and the synopsis for this one immediately had me interested.

Calamity starts off with a bang and we get right into the action, which I much appreciate, so it caught my attention from the start. I don’t know if it’s this book in particular or the fact that I don’t usually read this genre, but I was pretty confused with a lot of the terminology in the beginning of the book before I caught on to what things were, and the whole backstory of the world like the ‘Family’s’ was hard to catch onto at first.

Other than those confusing bits I felt like the story flowed pretty well. I loved the dry sarcastic humor and the main character was likable and funny. The whole crew of misfits finding a home/family together will always be a favorite theme of mine and I loved all of the crew on the Quest.

I liked the romance in the book, but i do feel like it took a bit of a backseat to the action in the story. As this is sci-fi there was a lot of action going on so it never felt boring. This book was more on the side of funny and a bit of a lighter read for me.

Overall I really enjoyed Calamity. It was a funny, interesting, action packed read with a little bit of enemies to lovers romance and spice thrown in there.

**Thank you so much to the publisher Tor/Bramble for the review copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

- Who knew all I wanted in life was sexy space adventures?! Me, I knew! I've been eagerly awaiting CALAMITY and it totally delivers.
- This is a great ragtag found family space adventure, plus romantic tension you could cut with a laser blaster. Temperance and Arcadio are a great, fiery pair, slinging quips and barely able to keep their hands off each other.
- I really hope we get the series the ending hints at, because I'd love to get the full stories of several of the other crew members.

A high stakes space adventure full of action, romance, and hilarity. I had so much fun reading this!

“Which is getting so far ahead of myself that I can barely see me back there in my own dust.”

I just love confident snarky female mcs. Especially those that aren't the normal archetype. This one was definitely entertaining and an adventure. So many amazing quotes on this one. It's also enemies to lovers and as she has been paired with this handsome noble she's trying to resist considering the awful betrayal right in the beginning of the book. But he's making it hard to resist since he's not really resisting at the moment.
Loved the politics and the missions. The relationships and friends were great too! Loved the dialogue and the banter.

Thank you brambleromance

I had an absolute blast reading this one! The components were all balanced so well. I'm so glad there is going to be more in this series. I really loved the MCs way of thinking and the tone of the story!